F3 History

Gunnar Nilsson was out before the race began when his fire extinguisher went off on the warm up lap, the Swede was baffled as he hadn’t done anything to activate it. Ribeiro needed a plug change on the grid and then found his clutch slipping badly, he sat there furiously waving his arms and hoping everyone would avoid him as the flag fell. Fortunately for the Brazilian they did and he was able to start the race albeit half a lap down on the others. Back at the front Sullivan had taken the lead and he was pulling away from the others and setting fastest lap on his way to a relatively comfortable victory. Hawkins was similarly secure in second, his team had changed the car after practice in an effort to reduce understeer and they had gone too far so he was unable to put up more of a fight against Sullivan.
There was a big battle in progress for third between Pierre Dieudonné and Ingo Hoffman with Dieudonné driving very hard to keep the Brazilian at bay but on lap 17 Hoffman made a big effort at Old Hall and dived up the inside to take the place. So after 20 laps Sullivan came home the victor from Hawkins with Hoffman keeping his third place ahead of Dieudonné, Arnott and Keegan. Ribeiro found his clutch gradually coming back but he was unable to make any progress and he was only able to finish eighth. Eddie Cheever was fifth on lap 1 and had moved up to fourth on lap 2 but almost immediately his oil pressure disappeared and he had to retire.